Sunday, January 25, 2015

If my writing career was my store.

If my writing career was my store, what would I be doing?

1.) Building content. Getting as much as I can get online, developing each product line as best I can, but getting it done. Having so much choice that the customer can't help but find something they like. Making the content different and quirky and idiosyncratic. Doing it the best I can, but making it my own. People find that kind of authenticity attractive.

2.) Diversifying. Doing as many different types and genres as I can do. At the same time, doing the biggest genres with the understanding that others will get the lion's share. Add up enough sales in each category, and I'll have a viable business.

3.) Being patient. It takes a long time to develop a following. It doesn't happen overnight. I'll have to be consistent and never give up and always keep up the quality. The customer can tell if I'm not interested in what I'm doing, so I need to be sure I'm doing interesting things.

4.) Writing what the other guys aren't. So everyone is writing fantasy and romance, but maybe not as many are doing westerns or horror or ... well, anything else the big boys aren't doing. There are undoubtedly sub-genres that aren't being exploited. Historical Horror? Whatever.

5.) Making it simple. Not doing all the extraneous things that everyone else says I should and must do. Promotion and advertising are probably a waste of time and effort. I need to create the content and wait for people to stumble across my offerings, and hope they'll come back. HOWEVER: I do need to find a platform where they will find me. And that won't be easy.

It took many years for Pegasus Books to become truly viable. I had many setbacks. There were times when I wondered if I should continue, but I kept on going, and eventually I was established enough to earn a living.

Obviously, this is a completely different venture, but the parallels are also pretty obvious.

I haven't done anything so far that detracts from any of the above, except perhaps to try the promotional route. But I did that at the store too, until I realized that none of it was working.

I will have to find a way to get onto main street -- which has been my biggest advantage at Pegasus Books.

I need to find a place where people can find me and my quirky offerings.

About Me

I'm Duncan McGeary, owner and/or operator for the last 33 years of Pegasus Books in Downtown Bend, Oregon. These days I'm writing books as well as selling them.
I'm the comic book guy. But even more so, I'm a book book guy. Books of all kinds. Big books and little books, children's and adult, fiction and non-fiction, hardback and paperback and trade paperback and graphic novels. Books with more words than pictures and books with more pictures than words. They are all part of the book world to me, and I love being surrounded by them every day.
I also have a second blog: Pegasus Books, where I list the product coming in over the next week.